It is 10am and six smartly dressed students are perched close to the school gate watching every person who walks in. When a lady dressed in a bright coloured Kitenge walks in holding a khaki paper bag, one of the girls springs to her feet, runs towards her and gives her a tight hug almost throwing her off her feet.

Such are the scenes that are played out over and again during visitation days at many of the boarding schools around the country. 

Such days often happen once a month and while some schools settle for the first Sunday of the month others prefer the last Sunday. On such days, parents, guardians and or siblings visit the children and spend time catching up with them on various issues.  

A student who is not visited on such a day tends to feel depressed and lonely while his or her colleagues are smiling with joy.   

On visitation days, most schools open their gates for visitors from around 9am to about 4: 30pm or 5pm. Once the gates have been opened, parents or those claiming to be relatives of the students are often checked to ensure that no banned substances are brought into the school. However, this has not stopped some wrong elements from smuggling in things like alcohol or cigarettes. 

According to John Okech, the principal of Riviera High School, one has to be very vigilant and even then you cannot be so sure since some of these things can be hidden anywhere. "If someone decides to smuggle in cigarettes they can do it because they are very small and could be hidden in places that your security people cannot reach. But if we eventually find the student in possession of these contraband materials then he or she is sent away,” he said. 

Isaac Byamukama, the deputy headmaster at Alliance High School also echoes a similar view. "Students tend to connive with visitors to smuggle in all sorts of things and so one has to be very strict. Actually on such days we deploy more manpower to ensure that we have an eye on who is coming in, what they are bringing, what the children are taking to the dormitories and anyone caught with illegal stuff is immediately sent home,” he warned. 

To ensure that the day is not abused, schools try their best to screen the visitors. This became necessary after it was discovered that in some cases students entertain their boyfriends and girlfriends who come in under the guise of being relatives. Cases of a ‘guardian’ showing up and being unable to remember the surname or the class of the child they have come to visit used to be common but many schools now have measures to counter this. 

In some schools like Alpha Community Academy, parents are issued with visitation cards and those who visit must present the card or will not be allowed in. "We have issued cards to those who are supposed to pick day scholars and those who are supposed to visit the ones in the boarding section,” said Brian Kasawuli, the school’s headmaster. 

At Kagarama Secondary School, the system is to cross check the visitors’ names with what the school records show. "What we do is to take a record of who comes to visit then we cross check with our records to see if they are the real parents or guardians. However we are planning to introduce visitation cards as they are known to be more effective,” said Sam Nkurunziza the school’s headmaster.

Impact on academics

Many parents use these days simply to bring their children some edibles and to catch up on family matters. Academics tend to take a back seat as many leave without getting a chance to meet the teachers of their children to discuss academic progress of the child. 

Another teacher who preferred anonymity pointed out that some schools have huge numbers and so there is never enough time for all of them to talk to teachers while others show up very late. Another major impediment is the fact that in most schools, the teachers are not residents at the school and so on such days only the key school staff are available.

"At Kagarama we set one day in a term for parents to come and talk to the teachers and we make sure the teachers are present,” said Nkurunziza. The same arrangement exists at Alliance High School. 

However, at Riviera High School, students are given tests and so during each visitation day, the parents are expected to check on the academic progress of their children before they leave. They get to talk to the class teachers and subject teachers to know exactly how their children are fairing. 

Other teachers we spoke to also lamented the fact that some of the parents never show up on these important days with others showing up when it is not a visiting day. "If they come when it is not a visiting day, then we do not allow them to see their children unless it is a very serious issue. 

Some of the parents we interacted with at Riviera High School were happy that besides seeing their children, they were now well acquainted with their academic progress as well as their state of discipline after meeting the teachers and other school authorities. "Now I know what the school does not permit and next time I will not bother carrying all this juice and biscuits,” said a parent who had just learnt about the new regulations at Riviera High School.